It's easy to underestimate the power of Excel.
Many associate the Microsoft tool with headaches from crunching numbers and tedious charts. But there's more to the spreadsheet-making program than you think. Whether it's an impressive map visualization or aesthetically pleasing works of art, Excel shows that beautiful graphics don't always require fancy software.
We rounded up nine creative projects you won't believe were made in Microsoft Excel.
1. 'Breathing City' map by DarkHorse Analytics
IMAGE: DARKHORSE ANALYTICS
Gathering data from the U.S. Census Bureau, New York City Open Data and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Joey Cherdarchuk from DarkHorse Analytics created a 24-hour breathing map of Manhattan's population at work and home.
Using conditional formatting and tiny cells, the map was visualized in Excel. Every frame of the GIF is a screen grab from Excel, Cherdarchuk tells Mashable.
2. Traditional Japanese art by Tatsuo Horiuchi
IMAGE: SCREENSHOT, TATSUO HORIUCHI
IMAGE: SCREENSHOT, TATSUO HORIUCHI
Tatsuo Horiuchi, a 74-year-old Japanese artist, took the simple idea of an Excel spreadsheet and turned it into an unexpected beautiful work of art. Horiuchi started to use Excel to create art after he saw other people using the program at work, he told PC Online.
3. 'The DNA of Proportional Olympic Glory' by IDV Solutions
IMAGE: IDV SOLUTIONS
Following the 2012 London Olympics, John Nelson, director of visualization at IDV Solutions, used Excel to create this chart of proportional Olympic medal counts throughout history.
4. Arena.Xlsm by Cary Walkin
IMAGE: SCREENSHOT, COURTESY OF ARENA.XLSM
IMAGE: SCREENSHOT, COURTESY OF ARENA.XLSM
Who knew Excel could be used as a video game platform? Cary Walkin, an accountant from Canada, created a full-length role-playing game using an Excel workbook.
He created Arena.Xlsm in five months, and released in March 2013. It features 2,000 potential enemies and a storyline with four different endings, based on how the user navigates the game.
It's available on PC versions of Excel 2007, Excel 2010 and Excel 2013. To download the game, click here.
5. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles GIF
IMAGE: REDDIT HOGUEMR
Move over, Photoshop — cool, animated GIFs can be created in Excel, too.
Using an Excel spreadsheet, Reddit user Hoguemr created a GIF of our four favorite ninja turtles. When he shared his GIF masterpiece, he explained that work was a little slow for him that morning.
6. Pixel Spreadsheet by Think Maths
IMAGE: SCREENSHOT, COURTESY OF THINK MATHS
Pixel Spreadsheet, designed by Think Maths, allows you to convert any photo into an Excel spreadsheet. Think Maths describes the process as "cracking the digital photo file open, scraping out all of the numbers and putting them into the cells of an Excel spreadsheet."
7. 'Five Years of Traffic Fatalities' by IDV Solutions
IMAGE: IDV SOLUTIONS
Believe it or not, these charts and maps were made with Excel pivot tables.
In addition to "The DNA of Proportional Olympic Glory," mentioned above, Nelson created this infographic showing five years of data (2006 to 2010) on traffic fatalities from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The first set of graphics shows the time of day, day of the week and months prone to fatal traffic incidents. The second set of graphics plotted these accidents by location in the U.S. To see how Nelson created a map like this, check out his post called "Excel Hack Map."
8. 'Stop-Motion Excel (Spreadsheet Animation)' by Joe Penna
Jo Joe Penna, also known as MysteryGuitarMan on YouTube, gave a whole new meaning to Excel spreadsheets in his 2012 music video. He made the stop-motion animation entirely in Excel, and it ultimately went viral.
9. Grumpy Cat in Excel pixels
IMAGE: IMGUR, TREMORIZED
Creating pixel art in Excel requires a lot of patience, so props to Imgur user Tremorized for creating this "Excel-lent" design of the Internet's favorite feline, Grumpy Cat.
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